My Gut Check, The College Dilemma Revisited

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Lately, I have been trying to figure out the perfect path for where to go in the next stage of my career. On one hand I could go back to college and pursue the pilot program to get all of my pilot licenses, but on the other hand I could focus on growing my business as I have seen happen in the last few months.

This internal struggle of deciding what I really want out of my life has had me stumbling lately. I have asked my close friends and family for advice, and every single person had a different thought.

I quickly realized that to feel confident in my choice, I had to look deep within myself. Ultimately, this is my life and whatever I choose will shape my future in a dramatic way. My gut has been telling me that my business is onto something, my gut says don’t go back to college, my gut says that I need to continue to pursue my passions and business goals just like I did when I first dropped out of college in 2013.

This is a difficult decision, I hate school but love learning. I am terrible at school because I can never prioritize it over other more interesting and opportunistic things. It’s just not part of who I am.

So ultimately, this internal struggle and debate came down to a pro’s and con’s list. The three largest factors about college are the time requirements, the location requirements, and the debt responsibility.

  1. I am in the services industry, my time is the most valuable thing to me. Having to pay a school thousands for them to take my time is so difficult for me to comprehend. Even if the end result is some type of diploma.
  2. The Location requirement makes me want to vomit. Although, there are plenty of online schools, I would decide to do a location dependent college since I would go into flying. This makes me sick to my stomach, not having the freedom to go anywhere at anytime is a huge problem to me.
  3. Debt Responsibility, the nail in the coffin. I HATE DEBT. May sound juvenile, but it’s true. Ever since I was a kid I set a goal to never take on debt in my life. Obviously, school is a bit expensive. Seriously, lets just round it off at 80K in education that I would need to fund with loans and blah blah.

This is a huge moral dilemma for me. Like I said, I never want to accrue massive debt like this.

So what is the final result?

Well I have decided to do something crazy in today’s day and age… afford college. (sarcasm)

Instead of hitting it hard for a few years to finish, I have decided to do a pay as I go concept. I will take a class here or there, because I don’t have the time, location dependance, and money to drop everything I have grown to this date just so I can sit in a class listening to a snobby professor (I stereotyped, so I apologize to all the cool professors out there).

So does this help my life vision? Well as most of you know, I have but a few big time goals in my life:

1. Start a successful business

2. Fly airplanes everyday

This decision about my future allows me to work on #1 and in result accomplish #2 through financial freedoms.

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But remember, things in your life will change. For me, I am going to focus on the services business that I have been able to grow. Who’s to say in a handful of years I wont go off to Alaska and fly in the Busch, or go overseas and fly missionary flying. Your life doesn’t need to be 30 years of servitude to any one thing if you have multiple things you want to pursue professionally. Don’t be ashamed of a liquid lifestyle, embrace it.

Just as I feel confident in my direction, if you are looking at your options be sure to take the time to weigh them. Take everyone’s opinions as helpful insight, but know that not one single person can have the correct answer for how you should pursue your life. Don’t ever settle.

Sure, I may not get my degree for another 5-6 years. But by picking a method where I will limit my debt responsibility and increase my time and location freedom, I can be happiest in my own desires and pursuits.

You can’t have it all at once, but work on refining a life that gives you the most satisfaction with the least amount of clutter.

So yeah, that’s what I’m up to and there are even bigger announcements coming soon. Stay tuned my friends.

If you are having a similar internal dilemma, I would love to help in any way I can. Leave a comment below or email me anytime.